Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. It is a positive piece of legislation. The Government is yet again honouring commitments it made in the programme for Government. In the programme, there was a commitment to continue to reform how HEIs operate through their relationship with the HEA by enhancing performance, financial management, governance and transparency, and utilising the system performance framework to drive accountability and improvements in our higher education system. This Bill modernises the governance structures we associate with HEIs and third level institutions. It is a welcome development and I am glad the Minister of State, who represents the neighbouring constituency to mine, is leading this along with the Minister. Well done to them both. I hope this legislation passes through the Houses without too much amendment or argument.

I join with others in paying tribute to the late Noel Treacy. I express my deepest condolences to his wife, Mary, and their children. I met Noel many times. He had a unique art in that he could link someone to each townland, not just each village. He was able to pick out townlands in Parteen village that some people in Clare would be unable to identify. He was able to name people from that townland. His knowledge and mental database were incredible. Long before Lotus Notus or Microsoft Excel, we had people such as Noel Treacy who, at the click of a finger, could name off people in every parish in Ireland. He was an affable character and a smart guy. Nowadays we judge people in their early 70s as young - too young to die. Noel certainly fought his battles with ill health but he is going to heaven as a young man. I express my deepest sympathies to his wife and bereaved family.

I will reference a few other matters relating to higher education in the time I have left.

It is really fantastic to see the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, TUS, expanding its campus out to Coonagh beside the Tesco site. There was a commercial development around Coonagh and much of it faltered. Of course, Tesco is there as an anchor tenant but there are many other buildings around it. I have a huge interest. Even though it is in County Limerick, it is only half a kilometre or so from where I grew up in Meelick. It is at the other side of our parish. Not a whole lot of work is going on there at the moment. We really want to see a bit of a spurt put back on that project because everyone looks forward to a hive of activity happening around that area.

Quite similarly, UL is moving into the Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield Street in Limerick. Again, that bolsters that whole third level presence in and around the mid-west. It is something we look forward to. I would hugely appreciate if the Minister of State could address some of those issues his reply.

Every person one meets along the corridors here and in the street has a smile back on his or her face again. We are slowly getting back to a bit of normality. My 20-year-old niece came to visit us the other evening. She is enjoying her first year at UL where she is studying business and French. We were delighted to see her in our house. We have not had her there in more than two years. I discovered that she is studying, as I said, business and French. There are something like 20-odd hours of contact lecture time in the week and then students have tutorials and all the other stuff they must do in college. Only three hours of her lectures at the moment are on campus in lecture halls. That is a little bit unique because business and French is one of those massive courses in UL. Many of the business lecturers could often have 400 or 500 students in the lecture halls. They actually hold some of those lectures the concert hall.

I attended UL for four years. If we are getting back to normality, and that certainly seems to be the pathway we are on in terms of all sectors, people like Aisling Biggane and many others starting out in third level should also go back to that. We have antigen tests and will have many layers over the coming months to ensure we have armour to fight back against Covid-19. We need to give students that experience. Three hours of contact time in a lecture hall is not really where we want to be in early February of 2022.

I ask the Minister of State the Minister and, indeed, anyone from the third level institutions who may be watching this evening to urgently review that. We have somehow managed to get all other sectors back to some degree of normal functionality but third level students need it as well.

I wish each and every one of them a good semester. Many of them have gone back with gusto since January. They should enjoy it. They are definitely the best days. I know people will say that the best days are when one is elected to the Dáil, but they are not. They were in UL trying to find the next house party and trying to drag oneself into college the next day.

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